Description:

The Department of Biochemistry and Molecular Genetics Departmental Seminar Series presents:

Panagiotis Ntziachristos, PhD
Assistant Professor, Department of Biochemistry and Molecular Genetics
Northwestern University Feinberg School of Medicine

T cell acute lymphoblastic leukemia (T-ALL) is a highly aggressive (refractory, relapsed) blood cancer. The focus of our laboratory is to identify and target mechanisms of chemotherapy resistance in high-risk ALL. We show that protein levels of certain oncogenic components (including DNA damage response pathways and the splicing machinery) are aberrantly regulated in T-ALL via a direct interaction with deubiquitinases, in the absence of genetic alterations. This ultimately leads to chemotherapy resistance and disease relapse. In this talk we will discuss the mechanistic underpinnings of non-genomic mechanisms of drug resistance, their use in disease prognosis and ways to therapeutically target them.